UNSCEAR 2008 Report to the General Assembly with Scientific Annexes
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SOURCES AND EFFECTS OF IONIZING RADIATION United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation UNSCEAR 2008 Report to the General Assembly with Scientific Annexes VOLUME II Scientific Annexes C, D and E UNITED NATIONS New York, 2011 NOTE The report of the Committee without its annexes appears as Official Records of the General Assembly, Sixty-third Session, Supplement No. 46. The designations employed and the presentation of material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Secretariat of the United Nations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area, or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The country names used in this document are, in most cases, those that were in use at the time the data were collected or the text prepared. In other cases, however, the names have been updated, where this was possible and appropriate, to reflect political changes. UNITED NATIONS PUBLICATION Sales No. E.11.IX.3 ISBN-13: 978-92-1-142280-1 e-ISBN-13: 978-92-1-054482-5 © United Nations, April 2011. All rights reserved. Publishing production: English, Publishing and Library Section, United Nations Office at Vienna. Corrigendum to Sales No. E.11.IX.3 18 May 2016 Sources and Effects of Ionizing Radiation: United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation 2008 Report Volume II Annex C (Radiation exposures in accidents) Corrigendum 1. Page 24, table 3, section headed “Sealed radioactive sources”, column headed “Industrial source/installation”, first row For 137Co source read 60Co source V.16-02681 (E) *1602681* CONTENTS Page VOLUME I: SOURCES Report of the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation to the General Assembly Scientific Annexes Annex A. Medical radiation exposures Annex B. Exposures of the public and workers from various sources of radiation VOLUME II: EFFECTS Annex C. Radiation exposures in accidents. 1 Annex D. Health effects due to radiation from the Chernobyl accident. 45 Annex E. Effects of ionizing radiation on non-human biota . 221 iii ANNEX C RADIATION ExpOSURES IN ACCIDENTS CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION. 1 I. ACCIDENTS AT NUCLEAR FACILITIES. 2 A. Accidents related to nuclear weapons programmes. 2 1. Criticality accidents. 2 2. Other accidents with only on-site consequences. 5 3. Accidents with releases to the environment and potentially significant population exposures. 5 B. Accidents not related to nuclear weapons programmes. 5 1. Criticality accidents. 5 2. Other accidents with only on-site consequences. 6 3. Accidents with releases to the environment and potentially significant population exposures. 6 C. Summary .......................................................................... 7 II. ACCIDENTS AT INDUSTRIAL FACILITIES. 7 A. Sealed radioactive sources. 7 B. Accelerators and x-ray devices. 9 C. Summary .......................................................................... 9 III. ACCIDENTS INVOLVING ORpHAN SOURCES ................................................... 9 A. Summary .......................................................................... 13 IV. ACCIDENTS AT ACADEMIC AND RESEARCH FACILITIES .......................................... 13 A. Sealed radioactive sources. 13 B. Accelerators and x-ray devices. 13 C. Summary .......................................................................... 14 V. ACCIDENTS ASSOCIATED WITH THE MEDICAL USE OF RADIATION . ................................ 14 A. Nuclear medicine .................................................................... 14 B. Sealed radioactive sources. 14 C. Accelerators and x-ray devices. 15 D. Summary .......................................................................... 16 VI. OTHER ACCIDENTS ...................................................................... 16 A. Transport accidents. 16 B. Suspected malicious act. 16 VII. SUMMARY. 17 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ....................................................................... 18 TABLES .................................................................................... 19 REFERENCES. 39 v INTROdUCTION 1. In the course of the research and development for and workers or members of the public in a fashion that results in the application of atomic energy and nuclear technologies, acute (i.e. deterministic) health effects.” Selected accidents a number of radiation accidents have occurred. Some of of significant public interest and/or involving environmen- these accidents have resulted in significant health effects tal contamination were also to be considered. Thus, for and occasionally in fatal outcomes. The application of the purpose of this annex, radiation accidents are defined technologies that make use of radiation is increasingly as unintended events in which at least one person experi- widespread around the world. Millions of people have enced early acute health effects that required some degree occupations related to the use of radiation, and hundreds of medical intervention, and unintended events that caused of millions of individuals benefit from these uses. Facili- significant population exposures due to environmental ties using intense radiation sources for energy produc- contamination. tion and for purposes such as radiotherapy, sterilization of products, preservation of foodstuffs and gamma radi- 6. It should be noted that the Committee has not considered ography require special care in the design and operation accidents that may have been significant from a technical of equipment to avoid radiation injury to workers or to point of view (e.g. failures in safety systems at nuclear power the public. Experience has shown that such technology plants) but that did not lead to radiation exposures. Moreover, is generally used safely, but on occasion controls have it is not the purpose of this annex, and indeed it is outside been circumvented and serious radiation accidents have the remit of the Committee, to investigate the root causes ensued. of the accidents, analyse accident progressions, conduct probabilistic risk assessments and forecast trends. Never- 2. Reviews of radiation exposures from accidents have theless, in order to provide a better qualitative appreciation been presented in previous UNSCEAR reports. The last of the range of characteristics and common features of the report containing an exclusive chapter on exposures from accidents that have occurred, the Committee has provided accidents was the UNSCEAR 1993 Report [U6]. brief summaries of selected accidents, their circumstances and their health consequences, and has described overall 3. This annex is aimed at providing a sound basis for trends when possible. conclusions regarding the number of significant radiation accidents that have occurred, the corresponding levels of radiation exposures and numbers of deaths and injuries, 7. Accidents were selected for inclusion in the text and/ and the general trends for various practices. Its conclu- or tables if information about the accident was available sions are to be seen in the context of the Committee’s in published literature in medicine, radiation protection or overall evaluations of the levels and effects of exposure to dosimetry, or other relevant scientific or government litera- ionizing radiation. ture, or in publications of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) or the World Health Organization (WHO). 4. The Committee’s evaluations of public, occupational Malicious acts (intentional as opposed to accidental), with and medical diagnostic exposures are mostly concerned one exception of topical interest (see paragraph 124), are not with chronic exposures of various population groups at lev- included in this compilation, nor are accidents that occurred els that are well below the thresholds for early acute (deter- during nuclear weapons testing. During the fifty-fifth ses- ministic) health effects. In contrast, accidents can involve sion of the Scientific Committee, it was agreed that no relatively high exposures, above such thresholds, and it is descriptions of accidents occurring after July 2007 would be necessary to consider separately the early acute health included in this annex. effects, which essentially occur only in accidents and which are clearly attributable to radiation exposure. In addition, a 8. The IAEA and WHO publish important documents few accidents have led to elevated exposures among larger related to accidents for which they have provided assist- populations, usually by releasing radioactive material into ance in response; these documents contain extensive the environment; the Committee has attempted to assess the descriptions of the event, dose assessments, health con- contribution such accidents have made to overall population sequences and medical treatment. Accident catalogues radiation exposures. are maintained by the Institute of Biophysics, Moscow, Russian Federation; by SEARCH in Ulm, Germany; by 5. The scope of this annex was to include “a survey of the Curie Institute, Paris, France; and by REAC/TS in accidents whereby exposure to radioactive material affected Oak Ridge, Tennessee, United States of America. Table 1 1 2 UNSCEAR 2008 REPORT: VOLUME II provides a summary of accidents recorded for the territory 11. The review of selected radiation accidents has six sections: of the former Soviet Union, some of which are described in - Section I covers criticalities and other operational this report [M4]. accidents occurring at nuclear facilities,